Kowabunga

Leftie Blogger Moonbats About Rally Turnout

This was in the Opinion pages of the Star Tribune the other day. It’s by a left-wingnut complaining about the lack of participation at a recent rally to support terrorism (they call them “peace” rallies). In it she writes:

In Ken Burns’ recent series, “The War,” a veteran says the military knew that the longest a person could endure combat before going totally nuts was 240 days. We’ve been in Iraq roughly 1,650 days now, and though God knows most of us haven’t been asked to do much more than sell off our children’s future, I think we’re all going a little nuts.

When people talk about the longest time a person can withstand the stresses of combat as being 240 days, they are talking 240 consecutive days on the battle lines without any rest and recreation time. The same logic she uses to come up with 1,650 days in Iraq as being equivalent to 240 consecutive days of combat would mean that the 1,346 days of WW2 for the U.S. would mean that every serviceman during that war should have gone nuts. She also fails to acknowledge that our troops serving in Iraq (and Afghanistan) receive regular R and R. They even had a gaming convention back in June (and a successful one at that).

This is not to say our troops in Iraq (or Afghanistan, or Kosovo, where we have been involved even longer) are not under substantial stress, ’cause thy are. This is why the deployments are limited in duration, anywhere from four months to 16 months (last I heard, that’s the max). Then they come back to the States. After a chance to recuperate and rearm, they are sometimes deployed for a second (or third) tour. But all during the time of their deployment they get time off to kick back and relax (as best as one can under these circumstances).

She also claims that we are selling off our children’s futures, yet Congress does exactly that when they increase taxes to provide welfare to people to lazy to get a job, or insists on top-down management of our local schools when it should be left to the municipality involved (the more layers of bureaucracy, the more things cost and the less you get for your bucks), or fails to secure our borders and deal with the illegal immigrant problem.

Then she rants about how Republicans don’t care about children, health care and schooling. The fact of the matter is that we do care. Health care is a parental responsibility (something I take serious where my daughter is concerned) and education is very important and parents should have the right to choose the best education for their children and pay for that which they use. What I mean by that is that school vouchers should be implemented so that all parents have a choice and maybe the public schools will get their act together. We also need to get the Feds out of our public schools. They cause dramatic increases in the costs for zero benefit.

Iraq is a never-ending nightmare, and the Decider’s mind seems decided on something catastrophic for Iran. We’re drowning in debt. Our health-care system is great — for those who can afford it. It’s October and 80 degrees outside. Creepy.

Nightmare? She hasn’t been over there so how would she know what it is like (I haven’t either). It may well be a nightmare for the Iraqis being targeted by al Qaeda terrorists there and the sectarian death squads. It is certainly becoming a nightmare for those murdering thugs that insist on killing innocent Iraqi civilians.

Something catastrophic for Iran? We have Jimmy Carter to thank for that if we do have to go into Iran to stop them from becoming the purveyor of nuclear materials to al-Qaeda.

Drowning in debt? Yep, that has been the American way for way to long, and our government isn’t any better. That’s one point we agree on, but for differing reasons. I suspect she is ticked off about the cost of the war whereas I am concerned about all the wasteful spending like that bridge to nowhere in Alaska, the need to reform welfare so that people are not simply getting a handout, privatizing Social Security so that my children will have something to bank on rather than getting bilked as my generation is. Our health-care system is great, and no one has ever been denied emergency medical services, regardless of ability to pay. That’s why Mexico sends ambulances across the border to border town hospitals and dumps their poor on our system.

October and 80 degrees? Maybe I missed something the first week of October here in Minnesota, but it didn’t hit that while I was in California, and it hasn’t been much above 50 since I got back a week ago.

I could go on (and on), but why bother.

Tags:

Susan Lenfestey Moonbat Star Tribune Iraq